Optical circuit board, an optical backplane and an optical communication system

Abstract

The invention provides an optical circuit board, the circuit board comprising: a rigid support layer; a flexible support layer formed on the rigid support layer; and, an optical layer formed on the flexible support layer. The optical layer includes one or more optical waveguides extending from a first area of the optical circuit board to an edge of the circuit board wherein the flexible support layer extends beyond the edges of the rigid support layer thereby defining a flexible passive optical connector for the circuit board.

1. An optical circuit board, the circuit board comprising:
 a rigid support layer; 
 a flexible support layer formed on the rigid support layer; and, 
 an optical layer formed on the flexible support layer, the optical layer including one or more optical waveguides extending from a first area of the optical circuit board to an edge of the circuit board wherein the flexible support layer extends beyond the edges of the rigid support layer, an optical interface being defined at the edge of the circuit board by the optical waveguide; and 
 a support structure comprising a rigid member and a spring buffer arranged to provide flexible support to the optical interface, thereby defining a flexible passive optical connector for the optical circuit board. 
 
   
   
     2. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , wherein the one or more waveguides extend from the first area of the optical circuit board to the edge of the flexible support layer such that an optical path is provided by the waveguides from the edge of the flexible support layer to the first area. 
   
   
     3. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising plural optical waveguides providing optical paths between the passive optical connector and a corresponding area on the optical circuit board. 
   
   
     4. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising a connector block coupled to the part of the flexible support layer that extends beyond the edges of the rigid support layer to define the flexible passive optical connector. 
   
   
     5. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising an aligner to enable alignment between an optical interface on the optical circuit board and an optical interface on another optical circuit board to which, in use, the optical circuit board is connected. 
   
   
     6. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising one or more optical transceivers connected to the circuit board for coupling light signals into the or each of the optical waveguides. 
   
   
     7. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising a substantially rigid support upon which the flexible support layer is formed, the substantially rigid support layer being smaller than the flexible layer, whereby a region of the flexible layer not supported by the substantially rigid support layer defines the passive flexible connector. 
   
   
     8. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising plural flexible connectors. 
   
   
     9. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , comprising one or more electrically conductive layers for providing electrical paths between electrical components or electro-optical components. 
   
   
     10. An optical circuit board according to  claim 9 , wherein the electrically conductive layer is patterned to define electrical paths on the optical circuit board. 
   
   
     11. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , wherein the optical layer comprises a lower cladding layer, an optical core layer formed thereon and an upper cladding layer formed on the optical core layer and exposed regions of the lower cladding layer. 
   
   
     12. An optical circuit board according to  claim 1 , wherein the optical circuit board is one or more of a user circuit for connection to an optical back plane; or an optical backplane for receiving one or more optical user circuits. 
   
   
     13. An optical communication system, comprising:
 an optical backplane, having two or more sockets each for receiving a pluggable optical circuit board, and 
 one or more pluggable optical circuit boards plugged into the backplane such that optical communication between any two of the two or more pluggable optical circuit boards is enabled through the optical backplane, wherein at least one of the one or more optical circuit boards is a pluggable optical circuit board according to  claim 1 . 
 
   
   
     14. An optical backplane, comprising:
 a rigid support layer; 
 a flexible support layer formed on the rigid support layer; 
 an optical layer formed on the flexible support layer, the optical layer including one or more optical waveguides; and, 
 one or more openings defined within the rigid support layer forming sockets for receiving a pluggable optical circuit board, wherein the flexible support layer extends partly into the or each of the sockets and being supported by a support structure comprising a rigid member and a spring buffer to thereby define a flexible passive optical connector within the or each socket.